Cause and effect of air pollution essay
What is air pollution?
Air pollution occurs when the air is contaminated with any chemical-physical or biological agents it is the world's largest environmental health risk leading to millions of deaths around the world each year although anyone can be affected by air pollution people.
who are most vulnerable include the elderly children and people with chronic lung or heart diseases. air can be polluted by natural sources or human sources natural or biogenic sources of air pollution include pollen bush fires or dust from deserts pollution of the air from human sources also called anthropogenically. Air pollution is commonly due to industries burning fossil fuels and the use of Motor Vehicles there are hundreds of different types of air pollutants.
How air quality is monitored?
Most countries have national laws and regulations to control air pollution these usually set out air quality standards that must be adhered to these standards are set out by each country and will depend on factors like technological feasibility economic considerations capacity for air quality management political and social factors.
These standards specify the concentration of a number of selected primary pollutants called criteria pollutants that are allowed in the air a useful way to track air pollution against the national standards is a measure called the air quality index AQI.
This is a simple numerical or colour-coded representation of how clean the air is there are different ways of calculating the AQI, but it's essentially a measure of what the level of a pollutant is compared to what the national standard is now that we've got a look at outdoor air pollution to let's have a look at indoor air pollution.
what are the effects of air pollution causes of air pollution and how we can prevent air pollution?
Air pollution causes harmful effects on human health, buildings, infrastructure, plants animals, and the climate, we know the presence of unwanted and harmful substances.
In the air is termed as air pollution any additional gases particles or orders that are introduced into the air and can cause harm to living things can be termed as pollution.
The science behind air pollutants
One particulate matter is a complex mixture of small particles and liquid droplets that are mainly from industry or motor vehicle exhaust dust storms or bush, fires can also generate large amounts of PM particulate matter is classified
According to the diameter of the particles, the health effects of particulate matter are mostly due to particles that are less than 10 micrometres in diameter these particles can reach the deepest parts of the lungs and enter the bloodstream nitrogen oxides is usually formed
when fuel is burned at high-temperature common sources are the exhaust of Motor Vehicles industry power plants and gas stovetops carbon monoxide is colourless and odourless and is formed
when the carbon and fuel doesn't burn completely the main source of carbon monoxide is motor vehicle exhausts and therefore carbon monoxide levels are very high in areas with heavy traffic other sources include industry incinerators and bushfires sulfur dioxide is a gas that can be produced
when sulfur-containing fuels are burned during industrial processes like in power plants and refineries lead is produced mostly as a result of metal and ore processing motor vehicle exhaust used to be a major source of lead pollution however regulatory efforts to reduce lead and fuel has led to a massive reduction in lead emissions,
Ozone is a gas that is not emitted directly to the air but is formed as a result of sunlight acting on other chemicals in the air ground-level ozone is a pollutant whereas ozone that occurs naturally in the upper atmosphere has a protective function
There are hundreds of other air pollutants that can lead to adverse health effects okay so what are the health effects exposure to air pollution can result in a wide range of short and long-term health effects the health effect will depend on factors like the type of pollutant concentration length of exposure and individual characteristics of the person exposed to it.
It can range from minor symptoms like irritation of the eyes nose and throat to more severe conditions like heart and lung disease or cancer it can also lead to increased hospital admissions and an increase in death rates in 2012
Outdoor air pollution was estimated to have caused 3.7 million deaths around the world in addition to causing health effects air pollution can also lead to damage to property reduced visibility and have other effects on the environment like acid rain.
Causes and effects of air pollution on human health
The pollutants in the air can be very harmful to the health of living beings chemicals like benzene or vinyl chloride in the air can cause diseases like cancer birth defects long-term injuries to lungs
Even death smoke and dust cause breathing problems lead particles caused brain damage among children and babies asbestos particles cause lung cancer gases produced by factories such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide.
Irritate the eyes and cause respiratory diseases such as bronchitis, carbon monoxide causes headaches intellectual disability or death, cigarette smoke contains tar nicotine and carbon monoxide which cause lung cancer and respiratory diseases
such as bronchitis emphysema and pneumonia breathing polluted air may cause infections in the eyes and nose air pollution due to traffic is the main reason behind the increase in the number of asthma patients.
What are the major causes of air pollution?
Emissions from industries and manufacturing activities almost all types of industries emit a lot of smoke that is released into the atmosphere and pollutes the air their smoke has high levels of harmful gases and particles like carbon dioxide carbon monoxide hydrocarbons and organic compounds that are very harmful burning of fossil fuels,
Fuels like gasoline diesel kerosene coal are examples of fossil fuels all vehicles use some fossil fuel mainly gasoline from running and emit a lot of smoke that contains a lot of pollutants like carbon monoxide oxides of nitrogen hydrocarbons and particulates on their own they cause great harm to people who breathe them and additionally
They react with the environmental gases to create further toxic gases this emission of smoke from vehicles is a prime reason of air pollution as our world consists of vehicles in millions as today every person's life relies on some or the other kind of vehicle.
Vehicles are required for transporting goods and to travel from one place to another and we all need to travel household and farming chemicals crop-dusting fumigating homes household cleaning products painting supplies insecticides we decide fertilizers all admit harmful substances into the air and cause some kind of pollution.
what are the causes and effects of air pollution on the climate?
sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide cause acid rain excessive carbon dioxide contributes to the greenhouse effect excessive chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs caused the thinning of the ozone layer smoke soot and dust from factories exhaust of vehicles and open burning lead to haze.
Causes and effects of air pollution on plants and animals
Chemical pollutants in the air when it mixed with rain it forms acid rain which is very harmful to all living beings acid rain destroys trees crops farms animals and also pollute the water bodies that again harms the living things that depend on the water of that water body another important effect of pollution is smog
It is formed when fog is mixed with smoke and a poisonous form of fog is formed which we call smog it can be very harmful to breathe in too much smog as it contains a pollutant called ozone and ozone is a gas that is very harmful to our lungs smog also reduces the visibility we learned a few major effects of air pollution
What are the causes and effects of air pollution on buildings and infrastructure?
Dust and soot-stained buildings acid rain corrodes concrete and limestone buildings and speeds up the rate of rusting in iron there are various ways we can use to prevent or control air pollution for example through law enforcement education and the use of Science and Technology
Ways to prevent and control air pollution
Under law enforcement, we can prohibit the building of factories in or near housing areas fines should be imposed on smokers who smoke in restricted areas owners of factories or vehicles that produce excessive smoke, and individuals who conduct open burning
How can education help to prevent and control air pollution
we can start by educating students to be aware of the dangers of air pollution and ways to prevent them, we can also organize anti-smoking campaigns we need to encourage the public to walk or cycle use public transport or carpool and lastly
What are the ways to prevent and control air pollution using science and technology
There are many different ways to reduce air pollution these require the combined efforts of governments industry and individuals for example governments can take actions like developing standards regulating the level of pollutants in the air developing policies to reduce the environmental impact of development and using clean energy sources
Industry can take steps like reducing their emissions to the environment taking measures to prevent pollution accidents or developing technology to reduce emissions like electric cars at an individual level,
Reducing the reliance on fossil fuels can be achieved with actions like walking using public transport or choosing energy-efficient means of living and transportation.
There should be sufficient distance between industrial and residential areas the chimneys in the industries should be made sufficiently tall so that smoke is released as higher as possible the mining areas should be planted with trees whole fuel should be used least possible vehicles must be designed with emission control system vehicles must get regular maintenance checks
Use hybrid technology and vehicles to reduce air pollution install catalytic converters on vehicles to convert harmful pollutants into less harmful pollutants install filters and smoke chimneys at factories to trap pollutants before releasing the smoke into the air replace chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs own friendly gases
Such as hydrochloric Lauro carbons or HCFC encourage farmers to use biological controls to control pests instead of using pesticides, we must try to join carpools vanpools.
So as to save fossil fuels always try to prefer public transports or walk small distances or use a bicycle always try to buy energy-efficient appliances recycle newspaper aluminium and plastic waste we should plant more and more trees.
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Thank you so much
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